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18  The Lord knows the days of the godly, ♦︎
   and their inheritance shall stand for ever.
19  They shall not be put to shame in the perilous time, ♦︎
   and in days of famine they shall have enough.
20  But the wicked shall perish;
      like the glory of the meadows
      the enemies of the Lord shall vanish; ♦︎
   they shall vanish like smoke.
21  The wicked borrow and do not repay, ♦︎
   but the righteous are generous in giving.
22  For those who are blest by God shall possess the land, ♦︎
   but those who are cursed by him shall be rooted out.
23  When your steps are guided by the Lord ♦︎
   and you delight in his way,
24  Though you stumble, you shall not fall headlong, ♦︎
   for the Lord holds you fast by the hand.
25  I have been young and now am old, ♦︎
   yet never have I seen the righteous forsaken,
      or their children begging their bread.
26  All the day long they are generous in lending, ♦︎
   and their children also shall be blest.
27  Depart from evil and do good ♦︎
   and you shall abide for ever.
28  For the Lord loves the thing that is right ♦︎
   and will not forsake his faithful ones.
29  The unjust shall be destroyed for ever, ♦︎
   and the offspring of the wicked shall be rooted out.
30  The righteous shall possess the land ♦︎
   and dwell in it for ever.
31  The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, ♦︎
   and their tongue speaks the thing that is right.
32  The law of their God is in their heart ♦︎
   and their footsteps shall not slide.
33  The wicked spy on the righteous ♦︎
   and seek occasion to slay them.
34  The Lord will not leave them in their hand, ♦︎
   nor let them be condemned when they are judged.
35  Wait upon the Lord and keep his way; ♦︎
   he will raise you up to possess the land,
      and when the wicked are uprooted, you shall see it.
36  I myself have seen the wicked in great power ♦︎
   and flourishing like a tree in full leaf.
37  I went by and lo, they were gone; ♦︎
   I sought them, but they could nowhere be found.
38  Keep innocence and heed the thing that is right, ♦︎
   for that will bring you peace at the last.
39  But the sinners shall perish together, ♦︎
   and the posterity of the wicked shall be rooted out.
40  The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord; ♦︎
   he is their stronghold in the time of trouble.
41  The Lord shall stand by them and deliver them; ♦︎
   he shall deliver them from the wicked and shall save them,
      because they have put their trust in him.

Lot’s Captivity and Rescue

14In the days of King Amraphel of Shinar, King Arioch of Ellasar, King Chedorlaomer of Elam, and King Tidal of Goiim, ²these kings made war with King Bera of Sodom, King Birsha of Gomorrah, King Shinab of Admah, King Shemeber of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). ³All these joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Dead Sea).^{* 4}For twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled. ⁵In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and subdued the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, ⁶and the Horites in the hill country of Seir as far as El-paran on the edge of the wilderness; ⁷then they turned back and came to En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and subdued all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar. ⁸Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went out, and they joined battle in the Valley of Siddim ⁹with King Chedorlaomer of Elam, King Tidal of Goiim, King Amraphel of Shinar, and King Arioch of Ellasar, four kings against five. ¹⁰Now the Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits; and as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, and the rest fled to the hill country. ¹¹So the enemy took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way; ¹²they also took Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, who lived in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.

13 Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks^* of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and of Aner; these were allies of Abram. ¹⁴When Abram heard that his nephew had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. ¹⁵He divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and routed them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus. ¹⁶Then he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his nephew Lot with his goods, and the women and the people.

Abram Blessed by Melchizedek

17 After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). ¹⁸And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High.^{* 19}He blessed him and said,
‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High,^*
   maker of heaven and earth;
²⁰ and blessed be God Most High,^*
   who has delivered your enemies into your hand!’
And Abram gave him one-tenth of everything. ²¹Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, ‘Give me the people, but take the goods for yourself.’ ²²But Abram said to the king of Sodom, ‘I have sworn to the Lord, God Most High,^* maker of heaven and earth, ²³that I would not take a thread or a sandal-thong or anything that is yours, so that you might not say, “I have made Abram rich.” ²⁴I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me—Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre. Let them take their share.’

Mediator of a Better Covenant

8Now the main point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, ²a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent^* that the Lord, and not any mortal, has set up. ³For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. ⁴Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. ⁵They offer worship in a sanctuary that is a sketch and shadow of the heavenly one; for Moses, when he was about to erect the tent,^* was warned, ‘See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.’ ⁶But Jesus^* has now obtained a more excellent ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted through better promises. ⁷For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one.

8 God^* finds fault with them when he says:
‘The days are surely coming, says the Lord,
   when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
   and with the house of Judah;
⁹ not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors,
   on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt;
for they did not continue in my covenant,
   and so I had no concern for them, says the Lord.
¹⁰ This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
   after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their minds,
   and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
   and they shall be my people.
¹¹ And they shall not teach one another
   or say to each other, “Know the Lord”,
for they shall all know me,
   from the least of them to the greatest.
¹² For I will be merciful towards their iniquities,
   and I will remember their sins no more.’
¹³In speaking of ‘a new covenant’, he has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.